Bauchi To Use N50bn Loan To Develop Agric Sector

Bauchi State government has engaged the services of an international agricultural consultancy firm, known as Techgen Agro Consultants Limited for the development of 200,000 hectares of land for mechanised farming across the state.

Governor Bala Mohammed said that the programme entailed a N50 billion Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) loan for Accelerated Agricultural Development Scheme (AADS) and is specifically targeted at all the youth in the state as the beneficiaries.

Flagging off 2022 farming season and fertiliser sales at Nabordo village in Toro local government area of the state, the governor stressed the need for the state to properly harness both human and land resources, stressing that Bauchi is blessed with agricultural capacity for economic prosperity.

He said the state has already trained 1,000 youths in crop production, livestock, fisheries and poultry who will be the pioneer beneficiaries of the programme, and explained that the fund would be sourced through Bauchi Investment Company (BIC).

According to him, the programme is going to be a full business enterprise in order to increase the economic capacities of state farmers, as the Ministry of Agriculture and Bauchi Investment Company have already been directed to put all hands on deck for the successful implementation of the programme.

The governor reiterated the commitment of the state government to the development of the livestock sub-sector with appropriate measures already taken to ensure the breeding of healthy livestock, consequent upon which an approval has been granted for the release of N44million for the annual livestock vaccination for the year 2022.

He disclosed that an ultra-modern specialist veterinary clinic would also be constructed at Ran Gate in Bauchi Metropolis, while in order to improve and modernise agricultural production, the Bauchi State Agricultural Development Programme (BSADP) has been carrying out agricultural extension services to farmers.

Other extension services being carried out by the programme, he enumerated, included partnering with Agricultural Research Institutes for sourcing improved agricultural innovations for use by farmers to enhance productivity.

The governor expressed displeasure at the activities of some selfish and unpatriotic citizens who engage in adulterating agricultural inputs, describing it as an act of sabotage, assuring that the perpetrators would be traced and sanctioned appropriately.

He directed the Ministry of Agriculture, and that of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to immediately constitute a task force committee comprising security agencies and all other stakeholders to arrest and deal with all culprits accordingly.

The governor attributed the astronomical rise in the cost of fertiliser to the war between Russia and Ukraine which resulted in the shortage of ammonia, the major raw material for the production of fertiliser, saying this state of affairs would naturally have a negative impact on crop production.

He assured that the state government decided to make fertiliser available and affordable to farmers by subsidizing the price of the commodity, pegging a 50 Kg bag of NPK at N15,000 while a 50Kg bag of Urea would be sold at N20,500.